{"id":125044,"date":"2025-09-06T20:42:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T20:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/125044\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T20:42:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T20:42:07","slug":"what-its-like-to-catch-60-pythons-with-your-bare-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/125044\/","title":{"rendered":"What it\u2019s like to catch 60 pythons with your bare hands."},"content":{"rendered":"

This as-told-to is based on a conversation with 29-year-old Taylor Stanberry, the grand prize winner at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission\u2019s 2025 Florida Python Challenge. The 10-day competition is a conservation event held in the Everglades to fight the invasive Burmese python population in South Florida. The pythons are believed to have been initially introduced through the pet trade<\/a> and are now threatening the native wildlife<\/a>. (All captured snakes are killed.) Stanberry caught 60 pythons\u2014three times the number of last year\u2019s winner\u2014and collected $10,000. She is a seasoned snake hunter, but this competition produced some unique challenges, even for her. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.<\/p>\n

I moved to Florida when I was 6 years old. I grew up catching toads and snakes and going fishing, and I just continued to learn about wildlife when I came here. I loved searching for it, especially snakes. Now I\u2019m a government contractor for python removal, and I\u2019ve been catching pythons for over 10 years. [Ed. note: Government agencies employ people year-round to remove and eliminate the invasive pythons.] I was in town during the Python Challenge this year and thought, Hey, why not!<\/p>\n

My nights during the competition would start around 7 or 8 p.m. and I would go until 5 or 6 in the morning. Then I would get a couple hours of sleep and take care of the exotic animal sanctuary I run, or possibly go to my other job at a physical therapy facility for dogs. We had to turn in the snakes we caught every 24 hours. We\u2019d have to euthanize them humanely at home, then I\u2019d have to drive another hour to a check-in station where they\u2019d be counted. That was the most stressful part\u2014I had to get home in time to be able to go to a different area to start hunting. And there\u2019s so many extra people in the area during the 10-day competition\u2014people come here from all over the country for this.<\/p>\n

The competition takes place in only a few approved areas, but it\u2019s deep in the Everglades. There are main roads people will take at night, and you do hear a lot of car traffic, but there are also frogs and owls hooting at night. I love that. Occasionally you\u2019ll hear bobcats calling, too. We hunt at night because it\u2019s so hot during the day. The snakes aren\u2019t moving in that, and most people aren\u2019t either. Most nights were somewhere between 87 and 92 degrees, and then you add that humidity from the rain. I bring lots of water because you get dehydrated fast when you\u2019re hiking and sweating. And then some bug spray. But honestly, the bug spray doesn\u2019t help. I always say when you have the bug spray on, that\u2019s just flavor to them, because they don\u2019t care how greased up you are\u2014they\u2019ll still attack you.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest hunting spots is a main road in the Everglades. There are probably 80 other cars in a few-mile radius. But still, some nights it\u2019s just easier to go to that road and get through the hustle and bustle. People bright you with their car lights and flashlights. Some people drive 60 miles per hour down that road; some are going 5 miles per hour. It\u2019s the people and the driving that are the most dangerous parts of the competition, not the snakes. That\u2019s why I would try to take the boat out and get away from everyone. It\u2019s just a 14-foot jon boat, nothing fancy, and it has light bars on it, so I can light up the side of the canals.<\/p>\n

That helps, because a lot of the time, you\u2019re just looking for shiny scales in the grass or water. You\u2019ll see the snakes\u2019 chins\u2014underneath they\u2019re white, so they\u2019ll glow in the lights. You see that nice glimmer, and sometimes they\u2019ll periscope, so their heads stick a few feet out of the grass. The snakes kind of look like a PVC pipe in the grass, but it\u2019s actually a python.<\/p>\n

I usually go hunting with my husband. To us, it\u2019s just kind of like a date night. We pick up some food or get our meals prepped and then we head out to the Everglades all night. You definitely need music. And a lot of snacks. You\u2019ve got to bring some candy or something to keep you entertained. I also like to play this game called \u201cWould You Rather?\u201d And I just ask him the most outlandish questions. Most of mine are terrible: \u201cWould you rather eat that pile of maggots or the pig poop we saw on the side of the road?\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone thinks that pythons just throw themselves at me because I post the good moments online<\/a>, but every night is hit-or-miss. I could go to the same area seven days in a row\u2014one night I might catch nothing, and another night, I could nab 10 pythons in an hour. I just catch them with my bare hands\u2014no equipment or anything. I grab them behind the head and also from the mid-body, because they will start to coil. I never grab them by the head and string them up high because that\u2019s just harassing them.<\/p>\n

The first night of the contest, I got a 5\u00bd-foot python crossing the road. My hopes weren\u2019t too high at that point. I was like, \u201cGeez, one snake on the first night.\u201d The nights after that got better, but that first snake did bite me. It was my fault. The smaller pythons are very whippy. I grabbed it mid-body instead of just behind the head, so it got one or two teeth on me, just enough to rip my skin very slightly. It was only biting me because I grabbed it first.
Otherwise, they just try to run away. A lot of people think a python bite hurts, but just think of getting pricked with 20 needles. It sounds terrible, but it\u2019s just slight little pricks. Once the bite\u2019s over, it doesn\u2019t hurt anymore. They leave such tiny little tooth holes that you don\u2019t even see them once you stop bleeding.<\/p>\n

The third night of the competition is when I got like 30 babies from a nest. I\u2019ve found quite a few python nests over the years. The best way to find one is to spot a cluster of small babies\u2014sometimes they still have umbilical cords. Once the pythons start hatching, that\u2019s when the mom leaves. She doesn\u2019t take care of the babies or anything\u2014she just heads out. That makes them easier to grab.<\/p>\n

In this particular instance, the nest I found wasn\u2019t super buried, and the mom was already gone. There were quite a few babies hanging in the trees. Once they start hatching, the babies will go forward and also up. So if the nest is laid underneath a bush, they\u2019ll start crawling up the bushes and get on the trees. They don\u2019t go up 40 feet or anything, but they\u2019ll be up at like the 6-to-10-foot mark. That makes them easy to grab. The second you go up to them, you have to pin them behind the head because they\u2019re ready to fight.<\/p>\n

I got some bites that night, too. The babies can be very, very bitey. They just came out of the egg\u2014they don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing, they\u2019re scared. The younger ones haven\u2019t dealt with people coming near them, or bigger animals\u2014they try to fight alligators or bobcats when they\u2019re small. They kind of learn throughout the years, OK, don\u2019t mess with anything unless you\u2019re ready. So, the bigger the snakes, the smarter they usually are, and they try to get away faster, but the smaller ones are like, What am I doing? Hello?<\/p>\n

When there\u2019s so many of them and they\u2019re so little, they can vanish easily up into the bushes, so you have to pick them all up really quickly. You\u2019ve just got to keep grabbing them and putting them in pillowcases. I caught about 20 of them that night before I found the eggs, which were all hatched out. But it was exciting, and it\u2019s good to show the FWC [Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission] how many eggs there were versus how many hatchlings. Finding the nest gave me some confidence about winning, but I knew it was possible for anyone to find a nest this time of year.<\/p>\n

On the last night, my husband and I decided to just cruise the road since we were exhausted. There were tons of other people out. On the other nights, the roads would be decently empty by 3 a.m., but on that night, everyone was out late, hoping to catch any snake they could. We were really tired and stressed, but after about 13 hours of hunting, we had seven more pythons in the bag! I knew my numbers were good, but I wasn\u2019t expecting to win. Someone could always have done better than me.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Julie Zeilinger
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In fact, I didn\u2019t even know I\u2019d won until I was on the podium. They had called me a few weeks before, asking for me to go to the event in Havana, and it\u2019s like an 8-hour drive from me. [The winners of the 2025 Florida Python Challenge were announced at the FWC\u2019s Commission Meeting held in Havana, Florida.] I didn\u2019t know if I could go, but they were like, \u201cPlease, please just be there.\u201d Everyone\u2019s very hush-hush during the challenge\u2014you\u2019re not supposed to talk about your numbers or anything because that can be considered cheating.<\/p>\n


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And then when I got there, people kept congratulating me, but they still didn\u2019t say what I won. The one lady I was with was like, \u201cEveryone shut up. Don\u2019t tell her.\u201d And I was like, \u201cOK, did I win? I\u2019m still confused.\u201d Even when they announced I\u2019d won, I was like, \u201cOK, so I did win?\u201d I was just in shock. I get terrible stage fright, so being called up to stand in front of people gave me anxiety, and I had no speech prepared. Once I left the event, it really kicked in, though. I was very excited! It\u2019s been a way bigger story than I thought it would be. I didn\u2019t realize I was the first female to win the ultimate grand prize, so I guess that\u2019s really intrigued people. The money from my winnings will go into my rescue, just to help me be able to continue to care for my animals.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want people to hunt pythons because it\u2019s fun for them, I want them to do it for the right reasons, which is saving the native wildlife and the Everglades. We probably won\u2019t be able to get rid of them all, but as long as we\u2019re trying, that means something.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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